A little bit of everything, a whole lot of nothing.

Day: October 16, 2014

For lack of a better title or a pre-established theme for posts like this, I’m just going to say hello, and welcome to a post containing random shit! I really didn’t have any idea what I was going to write today, I just decided that I needed to write something because I took yesterday off. I’ve been trying to keep up with posting almost every day, and some days when I don’t have any ideas I just scour the web for things I find interesting and then share them with you. None of the points I want to touch on were really large enough to make a dedicated post, so I’m throwing it all together here. Hopefully there will be something that will interest you too.

I really want to talk about PvP because the debate has re-opened and many blogs in the community have put in their two cents. However, it has already been decided between J3w3l and myself that we are going to be tackling the subject in a full on discussion on next week’s Couch Podtatoes podcast. I’ll take the opportunity now to put out an open call to members of the community that would like to make their voices heard, as I feel that more viewpoints added to the debate is always a good thing. Keep in mind that J3w3l and I are fans of PvP, so we will be arguing for its inclusion in games, but we are open to hearing the opinions of people who are against it, as that helps to temper the discussion. Let me know if you are interested in joining that show in the comments (we will record on Wednesday 10/22 at 1 p.m. PST).

Having said that, here are some interesting tidbits that I found while surfing this afternoon:

Free Games

You like games right? If you didn’t you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog. Sometimes I stumble across free games and I like to share the wealth. So if you like free games, and let’s face it, who doesn’t, here are a few that you can pick up right now!

Alien vs. Predator 2000GOG.com is running a promotion where if you sign up for the GOG Galaxy Beta you will receive a free copy of this classic AvP title. It’s old, but it’s one of the stronger Alien games in recent memory (besides Alien Isolation which has received rave reviews thus far). I haven’t played it since it came out but I do remember it being fairly fun. At the time of this writing, there are still 10 hours remaining to grab your copy, so take advantage while the deal lasts.

Afterfall: Insanity
Indie Game Bundles which recently re-branded themselves “Bundle HQ,” (though they still have the indiegamebundles.com address) has a promotion running that where you can get a free Steam key for this title. I really have no idea if it’s any good, but it’s free, it’s branded as a horror title, and it looks interesting in my book. Follow this link to claim your key.

Crash Time II
This one popped up on the same website about a week ago, and I still haven’t tried it, but it’s the same deal: free Steam key. Since it’s been running for a while the supplies are probably limited, but you might still be able to grab it. From what I can tell it’s an open world driving game, but seems focused on apprehending criminals. Looks fun.

PayDay: The Heist
I already own both PayDay games on Playstation, as they’ve both been released through Playstation Plus. You play as a member of an elite squad of bank robbers, and do just that: rob banks. It’s basically a co-op lobby shooter, and it has its moments, but I wasn’t overly thrilled with it. I think the main issue was that I only played it solo or with random people online. I think with friends it might actually be pretty fun, for a time. Anyway, the title is free on Steam right now, and that will probably end at the usual 10 a.m. PDT tomorrow, so take advantage now.

Steam is also offering a free weekend on something like ten games, so while you’re there, you can try out some other games to see if you think they’re worth a purchase.

Game News

Awesomenauts has a new patch in beta testing right now. 2.7 is going to be featuring a number of tweaks and improvements, but the most notable portion of the patch is the addition of a new naut. This is good for people who don’t own the Starstorm DLC, as the new naut will be for all owners of the base game. His name is “The Scoop of Justice” and he looks to be a melee based class, but I’m just judging him by his cover (he has a big sword). No further information on him is available at this point, so we’ll have to wait for actual patch notes. I haven’t played the game in about a month, so I’m looking forward to a reason to get back into it.

Riot is making improvements to its Refer-A-Friend system, as not only was the old system ridiculous, but it was ripe for abuse. It was ridiculous because there were a bunch of tiers that were just unrealistic (refer 1000 friends and stuff like that), and it was abused by players creating other accounts and referring them, using bots to level up said accounts, and then selling those accounts as well. You would earn IP/RP and skins for referrals, and that is staying, but the new program sounds more reasonable and should discourage botting. As it will look now, if you refer 3 friends (that make it to account level ten) you will earn the Warwick skin and some IP. Refer 5, you get a Twitch skin and more IP. There aren’t futher tiers beyond that, so there isn’t much of a reason for people to continue botting (except for account selling reasons, so I’m not sure it will disappear altogether). Either way I like Riot and what it does. It seems to care about toxicity and systems abuse more than most companies, and is a good example of a team trying to keep their game relevantly safe.

Last bit for today: There’s a new game on Kickstarter that uses the Banner Saga engine. It’s called BEDLAM, and it looks to follow a similar style as far as gameplay goes. Rather than an army on the Oregon Trail, you have a “dozer.” It’s post apocalyptic rather than fantasy. The turn based combat system appears to be faster paced and utilizes guns and special abilities. There is supposed to be some rogue-like elements, but the particular Q&A I read didn’t go into that very much, so I’m guessing it’s just randomized events along the trail like Banner Saga had. Overall it looks like Fallout meets Banner Saga, and I can’t see how that’s a bad thing. They are close to reaching their goal on Kickstarter, but if you’re interested in the title you can help.